ACIM Lesson 306 ACIM The gift of Christ is all I seek today.
²Today I can forget the world I made. ³Today I can go past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace.
The Gift of Christ
The gift of Christ is all I seek today.
1. What but Christ’s vision would I use today, when it can offer me a day in which I see a world so like to Heaven that an ancient memory returns to me? ²Today I can forget the world I made. ³Today I can go past all fear, and be restored to love and holiness and peace. ⁴Today I am redeemed, and born anew into a world of mercy and of care; of loving kindness and the peace of God.
2. And so, our Father, we return to You, remembering we never went away; remembering Your holy gifts to us. ²In gratitude and thankfulness we come, with empty hands and open hearts and minds, asking but what You give. ³We cannot make an offering sufficient for Your Son. ⁴But in Your Love the gift of Christ is his.
Nothing We Believe Is True
This lesson expresses the certainty that we will awaken and that we can do so today if we so choose. In order to do this, we must let go of all we have ever believed about everything. We are wrong about who we are and what the world is. There is nothing that we believe that is true. This is why we must come with empty hands. We must let go of our beliefs, all of them. But before we can let go of our beliefs, we have to look at them and see their effects. We then let them go because their effects show us they are not valuable even though we thought they were.
As a result, we will begin to see with Christ’s vision. As we let go more and more of these beliefs, we have made room for reality. This will motivate us to continue until the mind is completely clear. By then, we will desire only God’s gifts of love and peace and happiness. Our desire, being singular, the real world will dawn upon our minds. From there, God will envelope us in His Love.
Gentle Steps
I was thinking about this process as gentle steps we take. The first step is to simply become aware that our thoughts matter. Most of us didn’t even understand that our thoughts are actually determining our experience. The next step follows the first quite naturally. We must learn to become conscious of our thoughts. Perhaps even become aware that for the most part we are not aware of them.
Direct Cause and Effect
Having learned to notice these thoughts, and having come to realize their importance, it is time for the next step. We now learn that there is a direct cause and effect between what we think and what we experience. Of course, that would not be particularly helpful if we could not do anything about them. There can be a period of experimentation with this.
For instance, I began with trying to think positive thoughts in order to have a positive experience. But this is just a temporary part of this phase. It might be helpful to see the connection but is not going to awaken us. We want to go much further than trying to consciously do what we have always done. That is, we don’t want to find another way to manifest our thoughts. We already do that every moment. ¹³There are no idle thoughts. ¹⁴All thinking produces form at some level. (ACIM, T-2.VI.9:13-14)
The Holy Spirit’s Function
This brings us to the next step. Now we have made a habit of being aware of our thoughts and we know they matter. It is time to make a real change and A Course in Miracles explains how to do that. We learn we have the Holy Spirit in our mind. It is His function to correct our thinking. Our part becomes clear, we are to notice our thoughts and to desire correction. We then ask the Holy Spirit to look with us at those thoughts and correction occurs. At least it occurs to the degree we are ready for it.
It can be such an astounding shift in thinking that it feels miraculous. And so it is. Sometimes we must look at a strong belief many times with Him before we are ready to accept the correction. That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we continue to do our simple part. We are assured of our success because it is the Will of God that this done.
Step by Step Our Lives Change
As we continue to patiently go through these steps, our minds become healed and our lives change at the same rate. Where we once experienced anger and fear, now there is happiness. Our lives might have been chaotic, and are now peaceful. Perhaps we felt hate or hated, now love pervades our experience.
This is how, step by step, we begin to live the happy dream in preparation for our return Home. We begin to forget the past. I’ve noticed that I can remember being angry all the time, but I can’t actually remember what that felt like. That is, I cannot bring up a memory of the emotional reaction. And I have no interest in doing so. Anger no longer holds value for me. If it shows up at all, I look at the cause and forgive it and the anger dissipates.
It is the same for many other feelings such as guilt. I remember that I felt so guilty for so many things. But I don’t remember how that felt or why I thought it was necessary. I don’t remember how it felt to think I couldn’t stop feeling guilty even thought I know I believed that for a long time. And though this may not yet be complete for me, it is close. And maybe, ²Today I can forget the world I made.
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